1. Technical Field
The subject matter disclosed herein is related generally to analyzing a semiconductor structure. More particularly, the subject matter disclosed herein is related to analyzing a strain distribution in a semiconductor structure.
2. Related Art
During the manufacturing of conventional semiconductor structures a layer of the structure may be placed under a strain. The strain placed on the predetermined layer may create an increased mobility of the charge carriers of the semiconductor structure. That is, the strain may allow for greater and/or faster electrical connections within the semiconductor structure, which may ultimately increase the operational speed of the semiconductor structure. For example, during the manufacturing of a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structure, a layer of silicon (Si) may be placed under strain. In order to determine if the strain placed on the Si layer is operationally acceptable (e.g., meets predetermined manufacturing specifications) for the MOS structure, a strain distribution of the Si layer may be analyzed.
Conventionally, the strain distribution of a layer of a semiconductor may be measured using a variety of processes, including nano-beam diffraction (NBD). Conventional NBD is a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) technique which may examine strain in a layer of a semiconductor using a high-resolution diffraction pattern. Using NBD, a user may capture high-resolution diffraction patterns of different portions of the semiconductor structure including a strained layer. More specifically, the high-resolution images may include a diffraction pattern of the strained layer of the semiconductor structure. The high-resolution diffraction patterns typically are stored and later analyzed to determine the strain distribution within the strained layer of the semiconductor structure. However, in order to analyze an entire semiconductor structure, a plurality of high-resolution images of the portions of the semiconductor structure must be captured and stored. As a result of the large data size and number of high-resolution images used in a NBD process, a significant amount of storage space may be required for analyzing the strain distribution in a semiconductor structure.